With more and more shows appearing at the fringe amid billowing clouds of hype and a professional publicity team operating in the background, it’s more important than ever that attention isn’t entirely pulled away from the independent acts doing it all themselves; lest we forget the whole ‘spirit of the fringe’ thing. To do so would be to miss a talent like one-man sketch machine Jonty O’Callaghan, who triumphantly maintains a uniformly high level across an hour of rich, detailed character work.

Rangy and energetic, somewhat resembling a young Stephen Mangan, Jonty cold opens in character, addressing the audience as an officious, passive aggressive theatre interviewer. There follows such characters as an actively aggressive sports coach, an addict with an unusual vice at a self-help group, and a storyteller reading a children’s book. The only things that link these eclectic vignettes are the quality and a comfortable sense that these are all characters of a familiar type. Far from breeding contempt however, O’Callaghan moulds these fairly standard elements into something more distinctive with his range and his knack for well-developed character tics.

In fact, the only sketch that veers close to anything approaching a niche concern sees O’Callaghan as a rugged Steve Irwin type tracking down a ‘film bro’ in the wild, running the risk of being condescended to death. While far from obscure as a subject, it noticeably received the most muted reaction from the crowd. Elsewhere, it’s often possible to guess where a sketch may be heading (the sports coach, the ‘Jackanory’ unicorn story with their adult themes in childish scenarios), but there’s no deleterious effect on one’s enjoyment given Jonty’s tensile, livewire energy.

Be warned, as a one-man sketch show, audience participation is frequent – there’s even something of a framing narrative in that theatre interviewer trying to find the perfect audience among the audience – and occasionally an integral part of a skit. This is most evident in a sketch which sees O’Callaghan’s avuncular chat show house interview a controversial self-help guru about her secret for a good life. Even in this instance however, he’s more than capable enough to deal with any stumbles from his ‘volunteer’. He shows an even lighter touch during a sketch combining Jane Austen and Evil Dead II when his foil throws an unexpected and hilarious curveball.

Superbly performed, vividly memborable, with just enough humanity in his recognisable archetypes to avoid lurching into absurdism, ‘Jonty O’Callaghan’s Got Some Notes’ is evidence of a talent whose skills as an actor are on par with the acuity of his writing. After strong notices at other festivals last year, he will surely go on to build on the modest (but pleasingly enthusiastic) crowd he has this evening. Go help build that before he finishes his run in the next few days.

‘Jonty O’Callaghan’s Got Some Notes‘ is at Just Out Of The Box at Just The Tonic at The Caves until Mon 17 Aug 2026